Together in Rural Unity

Rep. Dina Titus

I don’t know what Sen. Dean Heller has done (or not done) in Washington, but clearly, he’s not just disliked at home in Nevada. On Sunday’s 60 Minutes, Breitbart’s Steve Bannon let the world know that he has put Heller first and foremost on his “Enemies List” pretty much making him the #1 most vulnerable Senator in the 2018 race for re-election.

While a number of Democrats are considering a run for the seat, including Rep. Dina Titus and Rep. Jacky Rosen, Nevada’s perennial candidate, Danny Tarkanian has stepped up to the plate yet again. If anything, Tarkanian has proven yet again WHY it’s important that every single Democrat makes it to the polls in 2018 to vote for someone who will actually represent Nevadans, not every whim of President Trump.

He appeared on “The Beat with Ari Melber” on MSNBC on Monday, 9/11/2017. Take a moment to watch his performance. I don’t know about you, but that’s NOT who I want representing my interests in the U.S. Senate:

Given that Nevada’s economy is heavily reliant on tourism, Rep. Dina Titus (NV-CD1) sent an official letter today to Nevada’s Attorney General, Adam Laxalt, imploring that he join with other states’ AGs to oppose and reject the president’s executive edict discriminating against not just Muslims entering our country (for business or vacation) from seven specific middle eastern majority-muslim countries, but an edict that impacts individuals who have lived in our country for years and who have “green cards” identifying them as LEGAL resident aliens.

So far all we’ve heard from Mr. Laxalt is crickets, but for the moment, let’s talk a little bit about Green Card holders.

Muslim GREEN CARD holders, meaning resident LEGAL aliens, who just happen to have gained their “right to life” through the misfortune of being born in certain countries our apprentice president wants to scapegoat, have been prohibited from reentering the country for 90 days if they happened to be traveling. They were detained at airports and prohibited from returning to their homes.

Do you understand what this means?

It means that if they have lived in New Jersey for 20 years with their family and were just unlucky enough to have been traveling for business or just merely on vacation, they are now forbidden to return HOME for 90 days. Will they lose their jobs? Will they lose their homes? Where will they go in the meantime? Will they stay at a hotel? Or will they be residing as homeless folks on some street corner in some other nation?

It also means that if a mother happened to have gone to her father’s funeral abroad at this unlucky time and tried to return home to her children, she was prohibited from doing so by executive fiat. She’s not allowed to do so for 90 days. Who’s taking care of her children? Will she lose her job that helps to put food on the table for her children? Will some state take them away from her for abandonment?

Don’t even try to tell me this is just about the need to conduct proper vetting. These people are GREEN CARD holders. A green card holder is a LEGAL alien. He or she has essentially the same rights as a citizen with respect to residency and employment. They HAVE been properly vetted. These actions against them are 100% ILLEGAL.

But the absurdities with this Executive Edict doesn’t stop with Green Cards.

Already, Doctors coming to our country to perform critical care for U.S. patients have been turned away. People who need critical surgeries that have been scheduled at major critical care hospitals, e.g., Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, etc., are being told they will not be allowed to travel to the U.S. and enter the U.S. for critical surgeries which in some cases will lead to their imminent deaths.

Interpreters who worked closely with our troops in hostile areas, who have already gone through extensive vetting, and whose lives would be in jeopardy in their home country, who have the proper paperwork and visas in hand were being refused. Luckily, legal personal stepped in to remedy the situation.

The acting U.S. Attorney General has indicated the Justice Dept. will NOT defend the president’s executive order. But, Sen. Jeff Sessions, the president’s choice for US-AG will be up for a vote shortly and it’s rumored that Mr. Sessions is in lock step with the president. Given that, you need to realize that if it can be them today, it can be you and me tomorrow! And if that doesn’t scare the hell out of you, you are not paying attention. Those are NOT actions that take place under a Democracy.

A few weeks ago, the United States Supreme Court issued a backwards ruling that allows for-profit corporate CEOs to make medical decisions that should be made between a woman and her doctor. That’s right – in the year 2014, the Supreme Court thinks female employees’ healthcare decisions should be made in a corporate boardroom, not a doctor’s office.

This week, the United States Senate will vote on legislation to address the Supreme Court’s ruling and ensure women who work at for-profit corporations have access to reproductive healthcare. While Democrats like Senator Reid, Reps. Dina Titus and Steven Horsford, and Erin Bilbray support ensuring women have access to reproductive healthcare, Republicans like Dean Heller and Joe Heck have consistently voted to restrict women’s access to contraception.

In support of the Senate bill, Nevada Democrats are launching #ItsNotUpToThem week. All week we will be highlighting how dangerous the Republican agenda is for the health of Nevada women. Because whether it’s Mark Hutchison leading the charge to go back to a time where private insurance companies could treat being a woman as a pre-existing condition, or Joe Heck voting to weaken the Violence Against Women Act, it’s time we send a message to Nevada Republicans that women’s healthcare decisions aren’t up to them or corporate bosses.

Please note that Roberta mentioned Candidate Erin Bilbray who is running agains Rep. Joe Heck, but failed to mention Candidate Kristen Spees who is running against Rep. Mark Amodei to represent those of us who are unfortunate enough to live in NV-Congressional District 2!

Mr. Ryan’s budget helps Big Oil, takes away jobs here in the U.S. and hurts seniors. Instead of tackling the rising cost of health care, Ryan and his fellow Republicans want to destroy Medicare by giving seniors vouchers for a fixed amount, leaving them to make up the difference.

The Economic Policy Institute says that the Ryan budget would eliminate over 1 million jobs in the first year and 3 million jobs by 2016. As of last month, the private sector had recovered all the jobs lost during the Bush Administration. The Ryan budget will erase those gains.

Rep. Ryan also grants more tax cuts to the rich while cutting programs that help the middle class succeed, like early childhood education, college loans, and workforce training.

Paul Ryan’s budget will have dire consequences for our country. We need a budget that reflects our country’s values and helps people get back on their feet, create jobs, and prepare us for the global economy.

An extreme faction of the Republican Party forced a shutdown of the entire federal government. In Nevada and across the country, we’re already seeing the dire consequences of this manufactured crisis.

Brave members of our National Guard have been furloughed. Critical medical research has been halted; access to federal student loans and Pell grants has been delayed; and small business loans for women entrepreneurs have been cut off.

If this shutdown continues, WIC programs across the country will run dry and 9 million women, including over 74,000 in Nevada, will lose access to the nutrition assistance they rely on to survive. As many as 19,000 at-risk kids will be kicked out of their Head Start classrooms – and that is on top of the 57,000 kicked out by sequestration. This hurts children who deserve a leg up and working mothers who struggle to find adequate childcare at a cost they can afford. The list of negative impacts goes on and on.

But instead of working to find a commonsense solution to end the shutdown, some lawmakers are playing reckless, political games at the expense of the American people.

Americans are fed up with the political obstructionism and dysfunction that have led our country to this unnecessary government shutdown. And there’s an easy way to stop it.

Right now, there is a clean funding bill (a C.R. or continuing resolution) on the table that would end this madness. All it takes is 15 minutes and one vote.

Congressional members in both parties and houses of Congress support it. If it were brought to a vote, it would surely pass. The President would sign it into law and the government would reopen. Congress could refocus and start having a reasonable debate about how to reduce the deficit, grow our middle class, and create new jobs.

Unfortunately, the Speaker of the House refuses to bring this clean funding bill to a vote. Instead, the Republicans have pushed a series of piecemeal measures that neglect essential services for veterans, vital nutrition assistance for low-income families, and countless other programs that help seniors, children, and small businesses.

Cherry-picking parts of our government is irresponsible and unfair. The best way to take care of the needs of all Americans is to pass a single, simple, clean continuing resolution that would immediately reopen the entire government.

It’s time to put aside politics, call a vote on the clean funding bill to reopen the government, and end this harmful brinkmanship.

Surely taking 15 minutes and one vote is not too much to ask to reopen the government, end the uncertainty threatening our economy, and give the American people confidence in knowing their elected officials are working for their best interests.